What salary do you need to live in El Centro, CA?

What housing costs in El Centro

A one-bedroom in El Centro rents for a median of $770 a month, utilities the tenant pays included; a two-bedroom goes for $1,037 and a three-bedroom for $1,294. Over a full year, the two-bedroom median comes to $12,444.

Buying is the other half of the housing picture: owners put the median home in El Centro, CA at $309,600. That works out to 5.4× the local median household income of $57,681, a mid-range ratio.

The Regional Price Parity, BEA's index of local prices with the US at 100, is 95.2 here. Below 100 means a paycheck stretches further: $100,000 in El Centro has the buying power of roughly $105,071 at national average prices.

Income needed for each grade in El Centro

For two bedrooms, $141,000 is where El Centro turns Comfortable. Below that, $70,000 marks the start of Okay and $35,000 the start of Tight; under $35,000 the score reads Stretched. Rent at the Comfortable line is 9% of gross pay.

Royal, the top band, starts at $367,000. At that income rent is 3% of pay and the median home 0.8× income.

How they were found: the same scoring function the calculator runs was evaluated at rising incomes until each cutoff was crossed, and the crossing rounded up to a whole $1,000.

What different incomes look like in El Centro

At $75,000, a one-bedroom scores 52 (Okay), a two-bedroom 47 (Okay) and a three-bedroom 44 (Tight). The $6,288 a year between the smallest and largest home is what moves the grade.

Read down the two-bedroom column and the first Comfortable row is $150,000, consistent with the $141,000 line above.

Where El Centro falls nationally

Out of 387 metros, El Centro has the 164th highest price parity and the 261st highest two-bedroom rent, which puts it in the middle half on overall prices and near the middle on rent.

Its nearest neighbors on the rent list are Sioux Falls, SD-MN ($1,038) and Fort Wayne, IN ($1,033).

El Centro vs. the rest of California

Statewide, California's median two-bedroom rent is $2,103 and its median home value $734,700. El Centro's rent is −51% against that, and its home value −58%; the price parity is 95.2 versus 110.7 for the state.

On statewide medians, a two-bedroom budget reaches Comfortable at $439,000 — above El Centro's $141,000 line.

If El Centro is on your list, Visalia, CA, Merced, CA, and Bakersfield-Delano, CA are the most similar California metros by two-bedroom rent and price level; the table shows where each turns Comfortable.

The median El Centro household

A household at the El Centro median income of $57,681 would see a two-bedroom score of 40 — Tight — with rent at 22% of income. That falls $83,319 short of the $141,000 Comfortable line, a reminder that the typical household here spends a larger share on housing than the Comfortable band allows. Statewide, the California median household ($99,122) grades Stretched on the state's own medians. Household income can include more than one earner, so a single salary of the same size goes less far.

These are pre-tax estimates from public statistics, not financial advice.